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How to handle uneaten shrimp (was "DOH!")

O. bimaculoides

Well, Reapers was actually out in the early morning light today, and because I did not notice at first, I scared him off. *thunks head on table*
Damned it.
I have had him about a week now, he is starting to come out more when he eats. I think he is studying me as much as I am him. (for lack of a better sexual classification. lol)
Though I am heartened by the fact that he is coming out at all!

Now I DO have on equestion.
He takes thawed, uncooked shrimp with no problem.
I also put a few Emerald Crabs in with him every week wich I am guessing he loves to hunt because I see the aftermath in the morning. lol

But the question is, is when he doesn't eat all the shrimp, he pushes it out of his den. well, it is in the back of the tank, among all the rubble rock that surrounds the den.
I can not get to the un eaten shrimp without moving the rock, which disturbs his pre den area. he puts it all back in place the next night, but is this too stressfull for him?
I have not done it for a few days, and there is a small pile od shrimp back there that I am getting worried about. The levels are fine, and I do daily SMALL water exchanges.
Though the hermit crabs and nessarius snails go NO WHERE NEAR his den any more. LMAO!
I never thought crabs could learn like that, let alone snails.
Ok, well... thats about it right now...here is a pic to show you what I mean.
*edit*
ok, the pics are coming off the camera rather slow today, so I will post a pic later on...

Colossal Squid

Any uneaten food needs to be removed as even though you don't see any levels changing yet, believe me it will affect your quality as it deteriorates. Maybe you can try siphoning it out with a larger piece of tubing.

Titanites

You need a long stick - we made one using two long thin wooden skewers lased together end to end. Another version has a little perpendicular wooden spike at the very end. This sort of tool can reach into places and push or flip out food. I think you could or make something that would work.

You can also buy long plastic tongs for aquariums.

It's not good to be rearranging his den area often - maybe you could put something there that would make it easier to catch and remove the uneaten food.

O. bimaculoides

You need a long stick - we made one using two long thin wooden skewers lased together end to end. Another version has a little perpendicular wooden spike at the very end. This sort of tool can reach into places and push or flip out food. I think you could or make something that would work.

You can also buy long plastic tongs for aquariums.

It's not good to be rearranging his den area often - maybe you could put something there that would make it easier to catch and remove the uneaten food.

Thanks for the rename. much more apropriate. lol
But as far as tongs, spears, and the like, it's been a tough battle with that.
I have some pics included this time.
Back against the glass, top taped down, small opening in front etc etc.
One of the things that bothers me most is that every time I put my HAND near Reapers den, he tries to grab one of my fingers.
Very cute and all, but I have SEEN how he goes after shrimp and crabs! lol
I will just have to figue something else out. lol

O. bimaculoides

Any uneaten food needs to be removed as even though you don't see any levels changing yet, believe me it will affect your quality as it deteriorates. Maybe you can try siphoning it out with a larger piece of tubing.

Cthulhu

Gravesly,
If your reef has larger substrate (vs sand) just scoup up a cup of it and you will probably get your critters. They get very sluggish when cold so chilling the cup-o-strate to about 65 degrees (refrigerate some SW and mix with tank water) should make them easy to get to. If you have an easily removable rock (maybe in the sump?) chilling it and then shaking vigoruously should also produce results. I have read that using bicarb (soda water - to change PH rapidly) will flush them out of LR but have not been successful with this method.

Larger Pacific Striped Octopus

Maybe a little OT, but this thread reminds me of an amazing/amusing anecdote from THE OCTOPUS AND THE ORANGUTAN, a book I reviewed for TONMO a long while ago. (I think it may still be on this site.)

The incident involved a female marine biologist who had a long line of tanks in her lab, one of which held a very clever little Octo (I don't recall the exact species). The biologist had a daily routine of going down the line and feeding the animals in each tank in succession. The Octo usually got some nice fresh shrimp.

One day, the biologist was running low on fresh shrimp so she decided to use some that were still edible, but a little older than usual. She placed one of these not-exactly-fresh shrimp in the Octo's tank, and then proceeded to go down the line of tanks, leaving food in each one.

After finishing, she walked back down the line and noticed that the little Octo had crept up close to the front of the tank, looking at her intently, and the shrimp was still lying there. When she made eye contact with the Octo, he -- without taking his eyes away from hers -- reached back for the shrimp with one arm, and proceeded to push it under the sand in a far corner of the tank.

The message was clear: the Octo had waited patiently for the biologist to walk back past his tank; made sure he had her full attention; and then told her, in effect, "You can take your &*%$#!! stale shrimp and stuff it!"

No, I did not make this up -- you can check it out in the book if you want to. (I don't remember where my copy is, but that's essentially what happened.)

So perhaps Reapers is simply a fussy gourmet like that biologist's Octo. Hey, ya never know!